Learning to Grow
by Mugglewriter14
Summary: James Potter, for many people his name meant he had to be like his father and having Harry Potter meant that he was way too famous for his own good. James wished for normal, but when your a teenager when is anything normal? Especially when your a wizard and one of you best friends is the girl you have been crushing on since you where twelve. Will be rated M for later in the story.
1. The Thoughts of James Sirius Potter

James Sirius Potter was not an average seventh year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Along with all that came with being in the oldest class at Hogwarts, he was also the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain and this year's Head Boy, which both were very large responsibilities.

His new status as Head Boy definitely had come as a shock to him, not his parents though. Even his parents expected him to be just like granddad Potter and Sirius. It was hard enough having his friends and Professors and everyone else expecting it, but his parents added a whole other level of pressure.

To most other Hogwarts seventh years, this would have been the best thing that had ever happened to him. However, he was named for his father's father and godfather, and it sometimes made people expect too much of him. It had driven him to have some of the best marks, but the extra attention often made him feel overwhelmed.

Especially this year, of all things that could happen, James became Head Boy. Of course, it was an honor that he was happy to have received, and it made him feel better that Professor McGonagall (who was very old and was most likely to retire this year) had confidence in him. This confidence in him gave him the assurance that he was trusted, and not considered a problem student.

Which for most people, it seemed to be the only thing that set him and his grandfather apart. These people of course, where very different in their thinking from James, who was able to see the many large disparities between himself and the original James Potter. However, this extra responsibility was sure to draw-in extra unwanted attention to the fact that others really did believe he was living his grandfather's life, as if his life came from a fairy tale.

That is where his friends came in: Demetrius Magoffin (his best mate), Elliot Magoffin (Demetrius' twin brother, they were identical except for their haircuts), Nathan Pruitt (the smartest, most studious of the group), and Jasper Furmage (the mastermind behind all of the famous pranks that they had done). The thing about his friends is they had a way of making his time at Hogwarts extremely enjoyable, even when people would make comparisons between him and his grandfather, and his father's godfather.

Of course, this form of fun was highly against the rules at Hogwarts. Sneaking in and out of the castle on a regular basis was a form of felony at the school so high that is could get them expelled. For this matter, they might have been caught years ago if it had not been for their greatest asset for rule breaking, the Cloak of Invisibility.

The Cloak had been a present from his father before he started his first year of Hogwarts. When his father had handed him the small brown paper package tied with string he thought that it was a blanket from home or something along those lines. Although when he sat down for the first time in his new room and pulled the red curtains together on his new bed he opened the package.

Pulling the string and carefully opening the brown paper so as not to wake any of his new room-mates. When he opened it to find a silvery piece of cloth a letter fell out of the package, which said,

Dear James,

I am so proud of you being accepted to Hogwarts. This came of great use to me during my time at Hogwarts. I hope that you will find a use for it there at school. By the way, this is a Potter heirloom and has been passed down from Potter to Potter, father to son, for generations.

Use it well.  
Dad

After studying the note carefully, as he had done with the rest of the package, he pulled out the cloth, and stood up on his bed to examine it. While standing on his bed holding the piece of cloth to get a better look at it, he realized that it was not a piece of cloth. Instead, it turned out that his hunch was wrong, he was quite wrong, as it was a silvery cloak, which he had used very well since his first year.

Although, there were perks to being the son of the great Harry Potter there were the difficulties of trying to live up to the family name. Still through all of the difficulty of being the son of Harry Potter, and named for his grandfather and his grandfather's best friend, he had managed to make a friend of one of the most beautiful girls at Hogwarts. Leah Jones.

She was the most interesting girl he had ever met. He loved the way she talked about things she was passionate about, the way her eyes sparkled too. He liked how her long blond hair was in a messy ponytail all of the time. Even though he thought all of these things about her, and more, it was not until last year that he had fully started to realize his feelings for her.

Up until then, he had thought that he just enjoyed her company much more than the company of others. He was right, of course; he just had no idea in which way he liked her. The fact that James had fallen hard for her however did not matter much in the end, because she had a boyfriend, and he was the smartest boy in their year. He of course was a Ravenclaw, and Oliver Dustry was not a person to be crossed.

This year however was different. He had finally sorted his feelings and now he had some status over Dustry, which had to count for something. This year was his year to shine, this year he would try at convincing Leah to rethink her longtime dead end relationship with Oliver, and possibly get her to start thinking that he could and might be the right person for her. James Potter was determined that this year he would not give up on Leah Jones, no matter the consequences.


	2. Bad Dreams and Platform 9 34

_James was standing in ruins. All around him there was crumbling walls and dripping water. Large stones littered the floor. Standing in front of him was a dark hooded figure; the only feature that James could make out was a pair of ice blue merciless eyes underneath the hood of the cloak. The being drew his wand playing with it, its eyes never breaking contact._

_"James Sirius Potter," it took a pregnant pause. "I have been waiting for the chance to make your acquaintance."_

_"What do you mean you've been waiting for the chance?" The creature let out a malicious laugh that echoed off the walls, "Answer me?" and like the cold hard laugh James's cry reverberated around the room._

_"Well I've wanted to meet you for some time now," you could hear as the simile was creeping onto its lips as it continued. "And judging by your reaction I know you will be dying to meet me too."_

_On instinct, James raised his wand slightly lowered wand defensively at the creature standing before him. The beast let out a deathly chuckle that made James shiver._

_"You really think you can avoid the inevitable James?" James did not back down, even as the being started pacing back and forth like a leopard about to strike its prey. With a sharp turn the being was standing face to face with him, preparing._

_"Avad-"_

_"James! No!" an all too familiar voice bellowed._

_As he saw the green flash of light erupt from the tip of his opponents wand all of the sudden the person jumped in front of him saving him from death by taking the curse their self. As he saw the beam of light consume his savior, the room around him began to disappear. Everything was turning into white nothingness. He heard the cold hallow laugh fill the space._

_"You can't run forever James." He heard the creature say as he slipped away from dreamland._

ӜӜӜӜӜӜӜӜ

James woke to find that in the night he had somehow fallen out of bed. His face was covered in sweat, and as he began to sit up he felt a slight headache. He deduced that he must have hit his head on the bedside table due to the soreness he felt on the back of his head. Then, he could not help but remember his horrific dream. It caused a wave of panic to engulf him.

That being? Who was it, and why did it want to kill him?

That person, the one who saved him, he knew that voice, it was someone that he knew better than he knew himself. Nevertheless, it was only a dream, and a dream is only a dream, right? He had nothing to worry about, right. Though he still could not shake this omniscient feeling he had since he woke up but that had to be normal. Any person who had just woken up from that nightmare would feel that way. James lied there for what felt like hours staring at his crisp white sealing, thinking.

"Jamie?" He felt his breath catch in his throat. No, the being had come to his room to finish him off. He was so young, he had not even graduated yet. There was still so much that he wanted to do, to see, so many people he wanted to meet…

He turned around to see an auburn haired woman in her early forties starring at him with an expression that only read as motherly concern. James studied her for a minute, and then looked down at the floor so that he could get his breathing under control.

"I'm all right mum." James slowly stood up so as to address her, as he stood up he could feel how stiff and sore he was and since he had been playing quidditch for his whole life he was pretty good at telling himself how long he was going to ache. He gave this about two days, not that anyone would be counting of course, he just felt desperate to think about anything other than his dream, even something that really bared no weight in his life.

"You sure, you look like you had one hell of a dream."

James's breath swallowed. The Dream. The very thing he was trying to avoid came plunging back to his foremost of thoughts. He tried very hard not to show his trepidation, he did not want to give her the wrong idea about anything, especially right before leaving for King's Cross, because then she would bring it up again at Christmas. Or worse, her next howler, not that he got them often. But it was a tradition for him to receive one every year for some prank that he and his friends made up.

"Yeah just rolled out of bed," James tried to shrug it off, and thankfully, his mum, unlike his dad, was very good at reading vibes. Therefore, she quickly adjusted her facial expression to one of a calm person and started to speak.

"Oh, ok, well then, on your way down to breakfast I would more than appreciate you knocking on your brother's door and waking him up. I suspect that he fell back asleep, even though I expressly told him to pack for school."

"Yeah, sure, whatever," He started to walk past his mum and out the door. "James, don't worry about anything darling."

Of course she knew he was worried, what mother would not be. Strangely enough, this turned out to be the one thing he needed to hear. He was just being daft he would be fine. I mean, come on who in their right mind would ever act like that. However, his father would be very quick to challenge him on that thought.

James walked down the long hallway of bedrooms. When James was just learning to count he figured out that there were ten bedrooms on the first floor and nine on the floor above them, Potter Manor was indeed a large estate with beautiful gardens and ponds and a simple elegance that made living there almost like living in a fantasy. The best part for James though was the field that not only had beautiful flowers that gave one a surreal feeling, but it also doubled as a great place to play quidditch which was a favorite pastime of the family when everyone was there. Finally he reached Al's room. A room to avoid as much as possible due to the faint redolent smell of old pizza and dirt. In other words, the smell that Al's obnoxious ferret Buck gave off.

Now, Buck was a special ferret. He was a cute looking thing when he was around two weeks old. That's when Al got him, however the family quickly learned that Buck ate everything and never seemed to be full. He once devoured a Christmas train set in 2 weeks that had been in the attic for storage. Not only was he the piggy-est animal that James had ever laid eyes on, but he was also the most repulsive. He would fart, burp, and shit any place that he wanted and woe to the person that tried to tell him otherwise.

More than once had mum told Al to get rid of the filthy thing, but Al being, well Al, decided that he would hide Buck in his closet. Because of course who would ever look into his closet right? Well as it is obvious, this was probably the most stupid poorly thought out plan that James had ever seen. In all fairness Al was eleven and it was probably the best he could come up with anyway. So of course the day came that mum was cleaning Al's closet because she smelled something strange in there while she was gathering his laundry. Moreover, when she opened the closet, out came Buck who had gained five pounds by eating all of Al's model muggle vehicles (aka cars).

In the end mum came around and let him keep the ferret, not the decision James would have made, but it did not really matter what James thought. This was because that little bugger always found a way to eat a hole into all of his new socks for school every year. In other words the relationship between Buck and James was not a kind one. Al, however was still grounded for a week for hiding a live animal in his closet, but he got Buck.

"Ally m'boy." James, in order to be brotherly, had decided to apparate right onto Al's bed. Al, being asleep woke up startled to find his brother standing on his legs.

"James!" Al rolled of his bed and face first onto the floor taking his covers and a sleeping Buck with him.

"Why, Al one greets his guests," James laughed a mischievous smile forming on his lips. "He does not ignore them."

"James I'm gonna get you for this." Al's face started to turn as red as mum's when she got mad. However as Al tried to stand up he tripped in the tangle of blankets that were tangled around his feet.

"Sorry brother," James said laughing in between breaths. "But I think you are a little tied up at the moment."

"James!" Al yelled after him as he ran out of Al's room and down the stairs.

James had run down to the first floor by the time that he heard his brother chasing after him. James ran into the kitchen, out of breath and still laughing.

"What's so funny James?" Sure enough, his father, the ever so famous Harry Potter, was sitting in the nook right off the kitchen, eating his breakfast of toast and jam, reading the Quibbler.

Over the last few years, the quibbler had become the go to newspaper. Due to the horrible untruthful stories that the prophet had been printing, it had lost a lot of status in the community. And in return the Quibbler began to lose some of the odd stories about made up creatures and instead turned its view to every day stories to accommodate for its' growing fan base.

"Al seems to be rather cross at me for waking him up this morning and he was very entertaining to watch get up." James slumped into a chair and reached for some of the toast and jam.

"Well that's nice; I'm very interested to hear your brother's side of the story." James saw his father's eyes peek up from his paper and twinkle. James knew that his mother would have been cross had she been the one to ask, however, his father liked in some ways the jokes that Al and James played on each other. James knew his father who thoroughly believed that he was providing his children the childhood that he had not had.

"JAMES!" Al rushed into the nook, but then saw his father looking at him. Al knowing from experience that it was better to leave the fighting to a time when their parents were not around was his best option.

"So Al, how'd you sleep?" It took all James had not to laugh but he did it almost choking on his toast though. "I hope you've finished packing."

"Ummmm... not exactly, all most, but uhhh... I have to go." Al left the room and dashed back upstairs, most likely to finish packing.

James snickered a little. He then glanced up to see if his father had noticed that he was laughing. And what he saw was a look of amusement on his father's face. James had to admit that the whole situation had been funny, if he did say so himself.

"Dad, I've never seen him run so fast in his life. Well done." James leaned over to the side to allow himself to look at Al turning the corner and running up the stairs. "I just hope that mum does not bust him for not pack-."

"Dad have you seen Omar?" His fourteen year old sister had entered the room, with red hair, brown eyes, and freckles she was a spitting image of mum. Something dad worried about for the years to come when Lily got interested in boys.

Lily also happened to be the most like mum of the three of the Potter children. She had a rough temper and a spitfire personality that was extremely likable. In other words, in a year and Lils was going to be a total babe. What with the looks and the great personality, it was going to be difficult for Al to get the boys off her. Since James would be out in the real world at this time next year.

"No Lily, I have not." His dad returned to his paper. The smile he had acquired from watching his boys this morning still on his lips.

"Well I can't find him." Lily huffed and dropped onto a chair. "Toast and Jam? This is Omar's favorite, hopefully i can just sit here and he will show up."

"Where was the last place you saw Omar?" James finally decided to speak.

"Well this morning around two thirty was the last I saw of him. I was up last night looking at a constellation that only appears once every fifteen years and only then. I saw him by my door and just assumed that he was coming to bed, because he wanders around the house I think at night."

"Well, I'm sure that he is around here somewhere."

James returned his attention to his toast, hoping to Godric Gryffindor that Lily would find Omar. It was inevitable that if she did not find him that she would make James and Al's lives miserable. She would whine and cry and well, yeah, and in no way did James want that. How did James know this one may ask? Well, this was not Omar the first and in fact this was Omar the third. The first Omar Lily had gotten on her eleventh birthday. He was around until October, when her roommate, Charity Gorre's, cat ended up eating him. Lily was beside herself for weeks and hardly spoke to Charity for three days she was so put upon. But time went on and she soon started to badger mum and dad to get her a new one.

Finally they caved, less than a year later, but she got Omar the second. That Omar at least lasted that year, they were all so certain that he would be around for good... that is until he got run over by a bus in the King's Cross station parking lot when they were going home for the summer holidays. That was not a pretty sight to see. Lily bent over a squashed Omar, crying. Al and James had to help her up and get her out of traffic and into the car. She sat shut up in her room for a few days. Then just a year later after that traumatic experience mum and dad got her Omar the third. It had only been nine months since the arrival of the little guy and now, for the first time, he had gone missing.

"Good morning Al," Albus Severus Potter had narrowly escaped mum, James could tell, he had been there and done that. James second year had not packed the night before and hell had rained down. Al clearly had come close to the fit mum had. James figured Al finished just as mum was entering his room.

"Morning," Al sat across the table from James and stared daggers at him clearly remembering his awakening call. "James..."

"Al..." James replied, knowing that two could play at this game.

"Well, you boys seem to be getting along rather nicely this morning." Mum entered the kitchen with the next round of toast so Al and Lily could help themselves.

"Yes mum we are," James looked from his brother to his mum and smiled innocently. His mother being smart, and having experience with six older brothers knew to leave it alone.

"Al, have you seen Omar?"

"What!?" Al had stuffed his face with a full piece of toast and jam and had not been paying attention to his little sister.

"Have you seen Omar?"

"Why yes, I think I saw him at like six this morning." Al looked up as he was trying to recover a fuzzy memory.

"That is great, where did you see him in your room?"

"I woke to find Buck making quite a racket at the door and I saw Omar enter my room and-," Al looked horrifyingly at his sister, well, here came the waterworks.

"What?"

"Lily, I am so sorry," Lily looked at him worry growing on her face.

"Al, how could you." Lily started to cry, and before anyone could pacify her she got up from her chair and ran to her room.

"Al! How could you be so irresponsible for Buck?" Mum looked at him sternly.

"Mum, it was 6 a.m. in the morning and I was not thinking rationally." Al looked at her then cast his eyes back to his toast. "If it would have been any later I'm sure that I would have saved Omar, but I was not even up yet, so..."

"That is fine sweetheart, but I don't know if Lily will see it the way you do afterall it was her pet."

"I know mum-"

"Ginny," their dad who had not spoken a word finally intervened in the conversation "We are going to be late if we don't leave now."

"You're right Harry," a phrase seldom heard in this house, as mum was usually right, "Boys go get your things and James tell your sister that she needs to come down with her things and come down to the car."

"Right." James and Al bolted up the steps to go grab their things, James first had stopped by Lily's room and found that she had not taken the news well that Al's piggy ferret had eaten her beloved Omar. After getting Lily's stuff downstairs for her, as she was incapable of even lifting her trunk without sobbing, he ran to his room and grabbed all of his items. Including the Head Boy badge he had left on his bedside table the night before. He had been thinking of course about the upcoming year, and like always the expectations that only seemed to grow larger with every passing year. He thought about how even though his name caused people to stop and look at him, how he did not even truly fit in with his family.

Instead of the Potter mane that would stick up in the back of the head, he had short manageable hair that was slightly standup-ish in the front. And instead of the black hair of the Potter's, or the bright red hair that accustomed the Weasley clan, he had an almost medium brown hair color with this rusty red tint that did not really connect him to either side of the family very well.

But these where things that could really never be changed and it was important that James remembered that he was who he was. And that you couldn't choose your family, no one could so he couldn't complain because he really did have one great family. What with all the cousins, uncles, aunts, and grandparents it made his life better, and happier. James didn't think that he had one uneventful holiday in his life. So on a slightly better note and the hope and anticipation of the new year he ran levitated his things and walked down the hall, to the stairs and our of the house to the car.

He then put his things into the trunk along with his siblings things, the Trunk had an undetectable extension charm on it so that the family could fit everything in there. The Potters then piled into the car and backed out of the driveway.

By Potter Mansion, see you in a few months…

Maybe by that time James would have Leah with him, and be dating her.

But James pushed those thoughts out of his head, or at least he tried to.

The ride to King's Cross contained no significant moments. Lily crying in the backseat, Al saying he was sorry over, and over, and over again. Mum and Dad were in the front of the car talking about the new election for Minister of Magic. This election seemed to be a very strong one, as both candidates were bad-mouthing each other and making every moment a political moment. But James, not being old enough to vote decided not to have an opinion this election, seeing, as it was his last election that he would not be voting in. The whole ride for James was rather different. He clutched the handle of his owl's cage and looked out the window more than seventy-five percent of the time. All he could feel was his nerves acting up and his stomach going in knots. It seemed that his heebie jeebies about the upcoming year had returned and James, ever a fighter, was trying to keep his nerves from overtaking him completely. He was determined to make every moment of this last year count. Even though at this point it seemed to be impossible, he was already worrying about so much.

The Potter's made their way to King's Cross in good time, well, if you can say that two hours is really good time, they had left at 8 so that they could be there an hour early to meet up with the rest of the clan. However, during the ride there was no talking. Lils refused to talk to Al and Al felt so bad and was too worried about what Lils was going to do to him that he was not much of a conversationalist. Therefore, James tried his hardest to calm himself down, but it was proving to be difficult seeing as the year was so close and the prospect of seeing his friends was so near. It was a combination of complete and utter worry and pure and utter joy and excitement.

"James!" he heard his mother call from behind him.

"What!?" James turned around to see all of them staring at him in amazement. James confused glanced up to look at the platform, platform 11. Whoops.

"Where do you think you were going? Timbuktu?" Al asked him. Snickering a little, glad to see the rest of his emotions where lifting a little. A comment like that normally would have made James laugh, but since he was a mess of nerves he felt his cheeks go red with embarrassment.

"Al, please refrain from addressing your brother when he has done something wrong," Their mother looked at Al sternly. "That's my job."

"Right, sorry mum." Al apologized knowing how antsy mum got on September first. But he still kept the smirk on his lips left over from his bit of snickering.

"Good then," she then turned from Al to James, "Where do you think you were going? Timbuktu?" James noticed that his father snickered a little.

"Just deep in thought mum."

"Oh, well then, come back here." James pulled his trolley back to the family, his owl still hooting and for the first time since arriving, James noticed the weird stares that muggles always gave when they saw the 'abnormal' pets that the wizards brought to school.

"Jamie, dear," his mum addressed him, "Why don't you go first?"

"Sure thing." Next, James was jogging towards what may have seemed like a solid wall but was actually the entrance-way to platform 9 3/4. James saw the platform emerge around him as he passed through the doorway. And there it was the scarlet engine that was one of the most iconic things about Hogwarts. It was the first and last thing you saw during the school year. James moved out of the way of the entrance way so that his family would not run into him when they emerged onto the platform.

Soon the entire Potter family had passed through the doorway and the little family had deposited their items at the luggage-car. Moreover, as was tradition the family set out to look for their not so little extended family. To most other people, when you are looking through a huge crowd of people for someone specific, it feels like you will never find them. Well, as the Potter's extended family was the Weasley's that proved the easiest thing in the world. There were so many of them and almost all of them had flaming red hair so it was easy to spot them out in a crowd.

To James, who had many other things on his mind it seemed like it took forever. Even though it only took, like, ten minutes.

"Well, look who we have here." A tall man with a long scar down the side of his face stepped forward to the family. A small smile creeping onto his lips.

"Well if it isn't the infamous Bill Weasley." His father added.

"Harry." Bill stated.

The family did the normal thing and everyone received a hug. This for most families is quick and short. But with so many people, it took a lot longer. After all of the friendly hello's and how are you doing's the adults soon succumbed to what adults do best. Talking about boring stuff. So James saw his opportunity and left the adults talking, it seemed like there where only a few of the younger children still with them seeing as the older kids where going through the crazy time most of us call teenager syndrome.

Teenager syndrome is not a medical term or disease but it was a fact that every teenager had it at some point or another. This meant that teens started to pull away from their parents, become more independent and responsible. But that puts it lightly. There were so many other things that came along with this "syndrome" this meant your hormones going wild a certain tendency to be in the best of terms impulsive. Or as the teens would say "we got a lot of shit happening and we need to live while we are young."

So James snuck off, and as all teens do, he looked for the people that he called his homies, peeps, buds, group, crew or whatever you might call it.

It had been ten minutes of searching for his friends and instead of finding them he saw a not do amiable Lucius Malfoy and his Slytherin friends that seemed to become more and more daft every year, that however was a matter of opinion. He also had the good fortune of seeing his cousin Rose lip locked with Lucius's Ravenclaw brother; Scorpius. Man, those Malfoy's where everywhere. However, back on topic, James had searched for what felt like forever until…

"JAMES!" James knocked off guard fell to the floor with a thud. As soon as he came to his senses and was able to register what had happened he was starring into the face of his best friend and adoptive brother Demetrius. Demetrius looked like his twin brother, but it could have also been the other way around depending on which one you talked to. He was tall, tan, muscular from all the quidditch, light shaggy brown hair and amused green eyes. In other words Demetrius and his brother Elliott where the bomb when it came to the Hogwarts girls.

"Hey," James looked up to greet his friend. Demetrius gave him his hand and helped him to his feet. "What's up?"

"Nothing much." James gave Demetrius a hug. James looked behind his friend to see the all of the Seventh Year Gryffindor boys smiling and clearly excited for the upcoming year. James wished that he could feel that way instead of like he was going to throw up from all of the stress.

"Elliott." James walked away from Demetrius and towards the rest of his friends and started to give them hugs. "Jasper. Nathan."

"So a little bird told us that our James, James Potter, was the new head boy and remaining Quidditch captain." Nathan finished.

"Your sources are immaculately correct, as always Nathan." James smiled and addressed a boy that was almost as tall as him, dark brown hair, and thoughtful Hazel eyes.

"Well, it was a surprise when I found out, I was sure that Professor Longbottom had gone off his rocker." A dirty blond boy that was the shortest of the group at 5'9" stated.

"Nice compliment, I'll let him know that you feel that way Jaz." James joked.

"Well, James you have to admit we have done a lot of things in the past that would probably make you unfit to be head boy," Elliott started. "I mean, with all of the pranks that we have pulled in the past six years it would be very daft of him to chose any of us, well maybe not Nate if you really wanted to know the truth."

"How about we stop talking about what Longbottom did and did not decide, lets just get on the train and find the girls." James started to walk ahead his friends stopped mouths wide open from the shock.

"Wow," Demetrius snapped out of the daze and spoke. "maybe Longbottom was right to chose Potter."

"Are you boys coming or are you going to stare into space looking like daft buffoons?" James laughed and waited for his friends.

"There is the James we have come to know and to love." Demetrius boarded the train and passed a very confused looking James who just watched as his friend turned the corner looking for the girls.

"What did he mean 'there us the James we have come to know and love'?" Elliott got on the train next.

"Nothing you need to worry about James," James, still confused, let all of his friends passed him but no sooner had Jasper passed him James made the mental decision to just let it go and join his buds in the search for the girls and for a large roomy compartment.

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So I have decided that I would like to have chapters that are longer like this one so I am going to rewrite the next few chapters and make them longer. I will update as soon as I can. and...

PLEASE REVIEW!

Mugglewriter14


	3. Big Red Trains and Herbolog

**Hey here is a fast update to say sorry to those of you who waited for so long, I would also like to say thanks to the people who reviewed and I hope that you review again. I hope you like it :)**

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The train left at the usual time. 11:00 on the dot. And the five Gryffindors made their way down the long train hoping to find the rest of their friends. And of course this proved to be a challenge, as like all years, because of the amount of students that where filling the hallways also looking for their friends.

"Demetrius, we have been looking for a while there won't be any compartments left if we don't claim one soon." Elliott complained.

"Hey, do you want to find the girls or not?" He turned around arms crossed over his chest.

"Demetrius, I have a feeling the only other person who wants to find the girls as much as you do is James and that is only because he is moony for Leah. And, hey, if you weren't seeing Charlotte McLaren then I doubt you would be that interested either." Nate, observant as ever, added.

"What, D, when where you going to tell me about this?" James was shocked. Last semester Demetrius and Charlotte had barely spoke much less go out. Maybe something happened over the summer that he was unaware of. After all some of the mail that was sent to the Potter household never made it.

This was for one reason and one reason only. Harry Potter. After the war wizards started to mail him and say thank you or ask to meet him in person and other such fan mail. So now there where two mailing addresses the real one that went directly to the house and the other one that went to the ministry. And more often then not Demetrius and Elliott's owl Barnabus had gotten the wrong address seeing as he was very old and often forgetful.

"Fine we can find a compartment." Demetrius grudgingly complied. "And James it happened last week, I wanted to keep it under wraps but Elliott let it slip to these fine blokes when we got here."

"Oh," James said.

The boys then continued down the hallway looking and failing to find an open compartment. And as it just so happened as they were passing by the next compartment a certain girl whose name is already known caught his eye. Leah. She was sitting with her back to a wall and her legs over Amy Tande's legs, the other girls in the compartment where; Charlotte McLaren, Damelza Pepperidge and Jocelyn Longbottom. The 7th yeaer Gryffindor girls where all considered to be beautiful, and even though James was biased when it came to this subject he understood.

Charlotte herself was a knock out she had these kind deep blue eyes and a tan skin tone, brown chocolate curls reaching down to the middle of her back. He could get why she was a very desired and sought after girl. Not to mention that she was spunky and fun to hang around so that was a plus.

Damelza, who went by the nickname Demi was very pretty indeed. With light blond hair that ended at her shoulders and big grey eyes she looked exquisite, or at least that's what Elliott said. He, like James, had a major crush on one of the girls and it wasn't going to go away anytime soon.

Jocelyn was another story she had her father's eyes and her father's brown hair, so she did look a lot like her father but she was still pretty and sophisticated. She was a brilliant witch but had unfortunately inherited her fathers clumsiness and soon she had started to call them Jocelyn moments. And the phrase had stuck.

Amy was model material. She was the tallest of the girls and had light blonde hair that was thick that went to the small of her back, she had crystal blue eyes that where fascinating to look at, and if you haven't guessed by now but she as part veela. And she used it to her advantage that girl had more dates and more boyfriends than any of them put together, well excluding Demetrius. But boy did she have a sense of humor.

And when James saw them in their compartment the girls where all laughing and appearing to have an amazing time and then he looked down the hallway and his mates where still walking looking for an open compartment.

"Hey blokes…" James waited for a second and when they didn't respond he shouted "Yo, Magoffin!"

"What?" Demetrius and Elliott yelled back in unison.

"Did any of you realize that you passed the girls completely?" James raised an eyebrow at his friends. They looked at him with confused looks.

"What?" Nathan asked.

"Shit, you guys are so daft," James said. "You walked right passed their compartment."

"Really?" Demetrius came to the front of the group. James noticed how he almost looked like a lost puppy, Charlotte had definitely done something to him, James had never seen Demetrius act like this about a girl. Normally Demetrius was a player and he would pick up a girl and drop her within a few weeks. He said it was because they where annoying and that they where no fun. But James knew that this was not the case, it was really because Demetrius was a hopeless romantic and believed in finding the 'one' so if they weren't the one he would drop them. James also knew that if he ever said anything about that to anybody, well, then he would be streaking down the hallways in the middle of the night.

"Yeah really."

"Well that was easier than I thought." Nate stated, hypocrite much?

James opened up the compartment and felt his heart soar as Leah turned to look at him and smiled. Wow.

"James, hey." Just wow, those where the only things he could say or think.

"Hey," someone in the heavens must really love him because he would have been so embarrassed to have just said wow. And with James's track record of saying stupid stuff in front of Leah.

"Hey James," chimed the rest of the girls.

"Whats up Ladies!" His friends had made it to the compartment and where greeting their girls for the first time and James just listened.

All of his friends pushed past him and took their seats, Nathan sitting on the floor pulling out a game of exploding snap to start. As was tradition. Demetrius placed himself so that his new girlfriend was sitting in his lap. Elliott took the place with his back against the wall the door was on and was talking to Demi and Jasper sat on the other side Amy near the window. James panicked for a moment before Amy had decided to Join Nate on the floor for a game of exploding snap.

"Come on and sit down." She patted the open space next to her and James happily obliged and sat down.

"How was your summer?" Leah asked him as she put her legs on him seeing as her previous foot rest had now decided to move to the floor of the compartment to play exploding snap with Nate.

"Good, same old stuff though"

"Really?" Leah knew exactly what he was talking about, one of the reasons he liked her so much.

"Yeah people still walk up to me for an autograph and also they asked dad at least twice this summer to run for minister of magic. And as always he turned them down."

"I'm sorry that must have sucked being pulled right back into the media again."

"Yep." James said matter of factly, "But I did spend a month with the rest of the family the Burrow, that was great, quidditch matches and sneaking into the muggle town nearby to go for bowling and pizza. It was awesome." James saw Leah smile, happy that her friend at least had something to enjoy from summer.

"What about you how was your summer?" He was now turning the tables on her and she began to relay her summer.

The next half hour was devoted to catching up and talking about summer, soon the whole group was in on the conversation and laughing when Nate's eyebrows where singed off. Amy standing up and jumping in victory. For an outsider looking into this compartment all you could see was happiness and friendship. A true beautiful sight to though the happy group was interrupted when Nate quickly stood up clearly realizing something that had utter importance.

"James, Leah, we have one minute to get to the prefects meeting."

"Oh, crap." Leah stood up and started to make her way to the door.

"James come on." James followed Nate and Leah down the hallways and through what felt like twenty cars but was probably only six cars at the most. And after one and a half minutes of running they burst into the prefects car just as the new head girl was starting the meeting.

"Sorry we where late, lost track of time."

In the car where several faces that he saw and liked; his brother Albus, his cousin Rose, and his cousin Molly, Scorpius Malfoy, who looked like he was in pain being apart from his girlfriend (clearly they had missed each other over the holiday). In addition, there were two Hufflepuff seventh years that he was not really close to but knew just the same; Aislinn Pennifold and Jordan Mansfield.

But there were also some faces that he, on most days, wanted to punch for being just so horrible. Lucius Malfoy and his girlfriend Concepta Dobbs and that good for nothing Oliver Dustry, how did a git like that get a gorgeous girl like Leah. These people where the worst that he had ever known, and that was saying something since he had met many politicians before.

"Great come in and sit down so we can start our meeting."

"Thanks." Nate and Leah sat down in the back of the row with Al and Rose. James not knowing what to do or where to go just stood in the doorway.

"Now since our head boy did not show-" the head girl, who James had not noticed until now began to talk, but no sooner that she started talking she turned around to see James standing in the doorway.

"James what are you doing here this meeting is for prefects and heads only"

"Um, I'm supposed to be here." James answered. He soon realized that the head girl was the Ravenclaw seventh year Ruby Hipworth, the one girl in the school that kind of made him sick, because since their fourth year she had scored with every Head Boy. And there was no doubt that she would want to continue that streak.

"Potter is not supposed to be here seeing as he is a good for nothing git that could never in a million years be selected for any position of power." Wow, a little out in the open there Lucius.

"Wow Malfoy, speaking confidently." James turned to Lucius and started talking, "But I had no idea that you would address your Head Boy this way?"

Leah, Nate and several others including Scorpius Malfoy gave him a thumbs up from the back clearly approving of the way he shot Malfoy down as Lucius now looked confused and a little hacked off but had stopped talking.

"Your the new Head Boy?" Ruby asked, and James swore on his life that he had just seen her quickly lick her lips thinking about her new conquest.

"Yeah I am." He looked away from her and addressed the prefects, hoping to merlin's pants that Ruby didn't try anything.

"That's great, so now you can help me finish the meeting and get everyone back to their compartments."

"Um, yeah." James noticed how she was starting to edge closer to him clearly trying to send him some signals. James looked to Nate and Leah, Nate seemed however not to notice the signs. But as nothing got past Leah she gave him an encouraging look and motioned for him to start the meeting.

"So, I'm James Potter for those of you who don't know me. Though if you don't I think you need to look at a Newspaper or something because it is pretty hard not to know who I am." James said it as cockily as he could trying to get a laugh out of people. And he succeeded in getting people to laugh except for a few Slytherins that would not be hard to guess and a certain Ravenclaw boy that could remain unmentioned. However that was to be expected. What James did not expect was that Ruby started to crack up and James who glanced back at Leah was giving him a knowing smile.

"And, I'm Ruby Hipworth as all of you know and I am your Head Girl." There was silence, clearly, or as clear as it was to James, the prefects wanted to leave so they could go an talk to their friends.

"So..." James stood there. "What's next?"

"Now we divvy up patrols."

"Right, thank you Ruby,"

As Ruby gave everyone their patrols James hoped to Merlin that she did not place herself with him. He would rather be with one of his friends or at least someone that he had not known before this meeting, anything to avoid her. She gave him this creepy vibe and whether or not that meant anything was completely debatable.

"-and James you and I will take the last Patrols." Ruby finished. James could tell that she was proud of herself. Poor girl thinking that she could get him just like that. It truly was sad,.

"Ruby," James heard his cousin Rose speak up, thank sweet baby centaur that she always knew the right time to speak. "How about I go with James seeing as he is new at this and you could better put your...uh...leadership to skill by teaching the ins and outs of patrolling to one of the fifth years seeing as it is their first time patrolling."

"I think," James spoke before Ruby could get a word out edgewise. "That it is a brilliant idea, especially because my lovely cousin here can give me some inside scoop and stuff, tips for the job that way you can do that for one of the fifth years and then everyone wins."

"-" Ruby opened her mouth but...

"Then it's settled then. I also received the password list from McGonagall over the holidays and they are respectively, Gryffindor ours is _Fortitudo Fidelitas_, Ravenclaw yours is _Animus Cognosco_, Hufflepuff's is _Varietas Bulga_, and last but certainly not least Slytherin yours is _Ater_ _Micrurus_. The Headmistress also informed me that these passwords will change after tonight to avoid any other house members trying to sneak into a different common room and that she will inform one prefect from each house to come and get the new password and to spread it around amongst your housemates."

"That was so informative James." Ruby said putting her hand on James's fore arm, what a charmer.

"So if my colleague agrees that you can go and be dismissed than we will finish the meeting." Ruby smiled at him, and James swallowed his breakfast before it would make a reappearance.

"I think that Jamie-," Really? "I mean Potter is right and that this meeting is over and you can all go and do what you do best. Keeping the train on track." James then moved his fore arm away from her and looked back to the prefects.

And the room was silent. Even though it was a pretty funny joke, at least if James had said it, but because all of the prefects had witnessed the flirt master as un-obviously as possible come on to James it was kind of awkward. James felt sorry for her.

Soon all of the prefects left and James quickly thanked his cousin and returned to the compartment with Leah, Nate had the first patrols with one of the fifth year prefects. Soon the compartment was back to the way it had been before the meeting. Ruby came by a few times and tried to convince James to join her in her compartment, his friends being as amazing as they were rebuffed her attacks and this allowed James to avoid the girl for at least a little longer.

Later Dustry, oh how the name disgusted him, came by later and Leah left with him. She left with him. James knew that they had patrols together and that Dustry was one of those uptight weirdos that would never in a million years break the rule. Several times last year he had pulled James over so he could correct James. But still she left with him, and all James could hope for was that Leah, that beauty with the big brown eyes and long black eyelashes would leave with him for "patrols". But his friends made sure that he was distracted. Thank the Peverells he had them because he might have become quite unhappy without them during this period of time. When the sun was going down he did his patrols with Rose and that was uneventful.

The train pulled into Hogsmeade and the gang rode up to the castle. The sorting Hat sang his song and nervous first years got sorted. The food was great and Demetrius basically inhaled his food. And when James climbed Gryffindor Tower to his dorm and when his head hit his pillow he fell into a deep sleep.

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The light was shinning through the stained glass windows when James awoke. In fact, a little too bright for his liking. CRAP! He had overslept, just what he needed to show that he was not up to the challenge of being Head Boy. Late for his first day of classes. What would the press say. Later he would probably realize how un-teanagerish that sounded in reality.

Ok, ok, maybe that was a little melodramatic of him. But it did not change the fact that he probably would get like, 10 to 20 house points off. Not good, not good at all. Especially since this was the first day and all. So James hauled himself out of bed and pulled on his uniform. He was out in a record two and a half minutes. He could be in the Muggle Olympics with that kind of speed.

James ran as fast as he could to his first class. Herbology with Professor Longbottom. He finally made it to greenhouse 8 after he had dodged many lost first years and maybe a third year Hufflepuff, but he was too busy running to class. And just as class was about to start he ran into the greenhouse panting and clutching his side. Wow what a workout. Who knew that running as fast as you could from Gryffindor Tower to the other end of the school could be such work. At least he wasn't in Slytherin then he would have had to run up steps instead of down them.

"Mr. Potter I see that you have decided to come to your first class."

James saw Malfoy and his goons snickering at the Professors comment. James however just shrugged it off and sat down next to Leah, where conveniently the only available seat was located. Unless you counted the one next to Malfoy but James sure did not. Soon class started and the almost tardy where forgotten by most of the seventh years as Professor Longbottom started the first of many speeches regarding the upcoming N.E.W.T.S and how utterly important they where and how if the students did not get good grades on these exams then there would be absolutely no way that they would ever, ever find a job in the wizarding world and since most of them had never lived in the muggle world they would never be able to find a job there and then they would be homeless and blah, blah, blah, blah.

It is not that James cared about his grades, he did. He was probably as type A as you could get, that's a real muggle term right? Never mind. But after taking O.W.L.s and having the same speech that year from every teacher, and then having the same speech this year and stuff. Well, it can get really redundant, unnecessary.

"So, how was breakfast, Jones?" James whispered.

"Well, Potter, I have to say it was boring without you in the mornings, dull really." She smiled.

"Didn't realize that you lot depended on me so much." He stated as he was trying to hide his smirk.

"Well, you know that you are the only person in our lot that actually has a sense of humor."

"I hope you're being funny Jones," Demetrius leaned over into the conversation, " because I happen to be rather funny myself."

"Please the only funny thing about you is that it takes you longer than me to get ready in the morning."

"Are you implying that I'm a girl, Jones?"

"Why as a matter of fact I am Magoffin." A coy smile was dancing on her lips.

"Well, I think that you would make a very ugly girl myself Demetrius, but hey that's only one blokes opinion." James sated. For the last few years now their conversations had become, well, just that, funny and sarcastic.

"Hey," Demetrius pretended to look offended. "That is not true, I would be a very lovely girl."

"Whatever you say Magoffin." Leah stated and looked down at her parchment for a moment. She was still as pretty as ever. Her hair was in a messy bun and she was wearing a pair of small black rectangle glasses because she had troubles seeing the board. And James knew that the only reason she had not had a healer fix her vision was for the sheer fact that her mother was a muggle and did not always trust magic and...

"Oh, James," She looked up at James remembering something important, Demetrius decided that this conversation clearly did not involve him any more so he returned his attention to the most boring speech so far this year, unfortunately this would be the first of many this year. "The Head Girl came to the table to find you this morning."

"She did," James made a disgusted face. "What did she want?"

"To 'talk' to you about some of the head duties," she air quoted talk, because it was totally no secret that the current Head Girl had decided to sleep with every Head Boy since 4th year. "But we all know that she wants to go all the way with you."

"Darn my handsomeness and charming qualities."

"Don't forget your rocking bod'"

"Oh, yes," James smiled, she thought his body was hot? "And do not forget my kindness and caring."

"And your modesty and humbleness," she chuckled a little.

"Yes, can't forget that."

And that's when the two of them started to crack up. The whole situation was just hilarious. Very few knew that James was not some sort of player like Sirius Black the man who he was named after was. But he truly was a sensitive guy. And the thought of hooking up with a girl like that and having her throw herself at James was just funny to the laughing pair.

"Potter! Jones!" Professor Longbottom stopped his speech and now addressed the two of them.

"Yes, Professor?" James coughed as he cleared his throat from laughing. Leah was sitting next to him getting her laughing under control.

"Is there something that you would like to share with the rest of the class?" The Professor raised an eyebrow. "Because I'm sure that whatever it is that it would be more entertaining than this speech. Or may I continue on with the rest of the class?"

"No, it's nothing Professor." Leah had now controlled her laughing to the point where she was only breathing heavily. "You can continue with the rest of the class, sorry for disrupting it."

"Thank you Ms. Jones." And then he continued with his over made speech. And the conversation ceased to exist.

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**Hey thanks for those who reviewed and for those who didn't I hope that you review this chapter.**

**Mugglewriter14**


	4. Canaries, Laughs and Qudditch

**Hey, this chapter took a while to write, mainly because I have been busy being a second semester Junior and there has been a lot of School work and no time to write. Hope you all love it. And because Harry Potter was not my idea, I do not own any of the book mentioned characters... Enjoy!**

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And Leah was right about Ruby wanting to 'talk' with him. By the end of lunch she had come by and got him to schedule a meeting with her but not before flirting with him a little, she batted her eyes and bent down to his ear, which she really did not have to do, only then to have her chest showing a little. His friends had a little laugh over that when she left. So by the next day James was making his way to the prefects common room on the second floor located behind a suit of armor.

"_Patefacio sursum_" James muttered.

He watched as the suit of Armor started to move forward from the wall, slowly ever so slowly. Then to have it stop completely, James who had never entered this common room before began to have a small wave of panic envelop him. But no sooner had that started that he realized that he had to walk around the statue to the opening behind it to enter, and then he entered the common room for the first time.

And it took his breath away. It was a very beautiful space. All of the house colors where there. Seeing as it was an all access area for prefects of each house. And on the stone wall facing the door there was a large Hogwarts Crest with the school motto _Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus_. There where large stained glass windows on each side, the images moving and creating beautiful beams of light that would flit across the room. The high ceilings that where two stories tall, with intricate mosaics of the story of the four founders of Hogwarts. The gold, bronze, black, and silver accents that went throughout the room where magnificent, and the furniture looked so comfortable and nice.

But before he could take in the beauty of the room he heard a squeal come from behind him.

"James!" He turned to see Ruby entering the room sporting a new hair color. And if you can guess it was red. Wow, she really was trying hard to keep that streak going.

"Hey Ruby," James stated flatly, however then he got a look at her and realized how scandalously she was dressed, tight blouse, and tight black skirt that was only a few inches underneath her nether regions. James decided to look up.

"Let's go sit down and get this meeting started with, huh?"

"Sure." He followed Ruby who decided to sit on the couch. So instead of fuelling the fire James decided to take the easiest approach and just sit on the chair opposite of her. She however decided that that was not good enough for her and she charmed the couch so that it was now a love seat.

She seductively got up and made her way to sit next to James, but on top of James would have been more accurate due to how close she was sitting to him. James uncomfortably moved farther away from her, and then she would close the space. This happened a few times before James decided to give up on sitting on the furniture and to just sit on the floor.

But Ruby couldn't take a hint and then joined him on the floor. But James thought fast and moved to the other side and before she could move he stopped her.

"Ruby, why don't we get this meeting over with," James talking made her stop any attempts to sit on his lap. He suspected that she wanted him to say that he would take her right then and there. "I have yet to finish my transfiguration assignment before tomorrow's class and it will be a lot of work."

Of course James was completely lying there. He had indeed finished his work. He just needed an excuses to get this meeting started and over with. Ruby then seemed to take the hint, in her own weird way. She edged slightly closer to him then spoke.

"Ok, first let's work out patrolling schedules."

"Sure, let me get out some parchment." James reached into his bag and grabbed a spare roll of parchment, a quill, and a bottle of ink. He put all of the items onto the coffee table, and dipped his quill in ink.

Over the course of the next 45 minutes the two heads sorted out all of the patrol schedules. In fact, Hipworth had tried to pair herself with James again, much to his dismay. Until he convinced her that patrolling would work better if it was done with members of one's own house. That way it would be less likely that a patrol was left undone or unfinished. And thank Merlin that Ruby was in Ravenclaw and was naturally logistic. Also that in all the time that James had known her that she had never been a girl to go against good logic…

So in the end James would be patrolling with Leah, since she couldn't patrol with her boyfriend because unfortunately he was in another house altogether… Now how had that escaped James's mind? Hmm? And as for Nate the other Gryffindor seventh year prefect, well he would be patrolling with Al and another fifth year named Abby Summerbee. So that was all settled.

But now the larger minefield of the meting was bought up. A Hogsmeade trip. James knew that this was coming and he had planned out a game plan before coming to the meeting. James had not one ounce of doubt when he thought he was certain that by the end of the meeting Ruby would ask him out.

So as they proceeded to plan out the trip date, which they decided that the first of the many trips this year would be in early October, unless it wasn't cleared by McGonogal that is.

So over all the meeting went well, unless you counted the few times that Ruby tried to seduce James again. The first time had been when he was drawing out the schedule for patrols. The second time when deciding the patrolling pairs themselves. She had suggestively stated that the two heads should patrol together to "get to know" one another better.

When they decided to call it a night James stood up and grabbed his items, stuffing them into his school bag. As he was leaving the common room so that he could get back to his dorm and meet up with his friends James was stopped.

"Jamie?" uugh, that was a name he never wanted to hear her say. Especially since she had her hand on his from arm and was staring up at him, and for the millionth time since the train James saw her lick her lips as if she was a lion looking at a piece of meat.

"Yes, Hipworth?" James moved his arm slowly as to not seem rude. He knew what was coming and he planned on letting her down easy.

"If the Hogsmeade date clears would you like to go with me?" She looked up at him sweetly, " like on a date, or something?"

"Ruby, I'm sorry but I promised the gang that we would hang out on the first Hogsmeade trip. They aren't even taking Dates. Sorry." Lies, James never liked to lie, but maybe for a good cause like avoiding Hipworth it would be worth it.

"Oh," she looked put out, "Ok." James could tell that she had not really expected this answer and he wondered if she had ever been rejected by anyone. Or had she ever really asked anyone out for that matter?

"Hey, got to run, and finish that homework." He heard a faint bye James as he turned on his heal and made his way to the door. The armor moved aside and James ran down the Hallway to Gryffindor Tower.

Finally after running up more than a few flights of stairs to the 8th floor where the portrait hole, James was winded and climbing through the entrance to his common room. And he was not prepared for what he saw.

"JAMES!" He heard as a canary came flying towards him.

"What?" James ducked as the Canary zoomed past his head, clearly unable to control its flying. When he looked to the couches he saw all of his mates, except Demetrius, and Leah and Demi cracking up. Boy was this going to be good.

"Hey you lot," James said sitting down on the floor with his back against the couch next to Nate who looked like he was about to wet himself.

"H-ey Ja-me-s," Jas stuttered out in between laughs.

"What is going on here?" James asked.

"No-thi-i-ng" Elliott laughed, James raised an eyebrow.

"Dem-i," Leah stated, still laughing holding her ribs. He watched as she tried to gain her composure. Finally she did and was able to stop her laughing long enough to tell James what had happened. "Demi and Demetrius where fighting about something-"

"Ab-o-out if Ja-a-cob is bett-er th-an E-edw-ard." Demi sputtered.

James had to laugh at that, just the idea that Twilight was the subject of conversation between the two was hilarious. Especially because, Demetrius had read the books in third year stating that girls went absolutely moony for boys who read Twilight.

"So," Leah started talking again. "The argument became rather heated, and the rest of us watched as Demi yelled 'no way in freakin' hell is Jacob better than Edward, because Edward actually loves Bella,' then Demetrius retorted that to put it in lose terms that Jacob was a handsome piece of boy and deserved to be put above a boy who is dead and sparkly."

James started to chuckle, "Really, that is the best thing I've heard all day. Thanks Demi."

"You're welcome James," Demi had now caught her breath and was going over to the portrait hole to grab the fallen canary soldier.

"Where's Demetrius, I need to thank him for making my evening enjoyable."

"Well I didn't finish the story," Leah shrugged.

"What happened?" James looked at her the laugh still on his lips.

"Well, mate," Jas spoke up. "It got really heated; they were yelling and screaming at each other. I even think that they scared a few first years. So then Elliott over here broke up the argument and they both went on their ways, until we all decided to sit down here. We talked for a half an hour before lover boy's girlfriend went up to bed and Demi over there decided to jump Demetrius and force fed him a canary cream."

"No way," James looked a Demi his mouth hanging open in shock, the sweet innocent girl he had known last term had turned into an amazing prankster over the course of the summer.

"Way," Demi walked over to him, Demetrius sprawled in the palm of her hand. Then she dropped him in James's lap.

"Why-" But before James had asked her what she was doing Demi pulled out her wand and muttered the counter curse.

So now instead of the cute looking bird in his lap Demetrius was in his lap.

"Demi," James whined, "why 'd yah do that?"

"Because he is less likely to get angry at you seeing as you were not there to witness this historic event. The Creamer takes the Cream, I can see it now. Front page news headlines." She said raising her hands and gesturing to imaginary words for emphasis.

"Wha-at?" Demetrius mumbled.

"Brother," Elliott said rather loudly, "Mighty fine to see you awake!" James looked to see Leah holding back a laugh, her brown eyes twinkling with laughter.

"Wait," Demetrius looked down at himself, still on James's lap. "Why am I no longer a Canary?"

"Demi changed you back." James stated.

"James?" Demetrius looked up at him. "Why am I on your lap?"

Before a single word could come out of James's mouth Leah piped up.

"Isn't it obvious, you finally realized that you are madly in love with James and you two are now a couple."

"Hear that Jamie," Jaz chimed in. "You and Demetrius are in love, congratulations you are a lucky couple."

"Did you hear that Jamie," Demetrius looked up at him with big eyes, "We're in love! I knew you would always fall for my dashing good looks and charming personality. I'll have you know I'm a real catch."

"I know, right?" James looked at Demetrius and then pushed him off of him.

"Hey-" Demetrius started to protest until James put out his hand to the boy.

"Care to waltz love?"

"Why I would love to." James pulled Demetrius up off the floor and the two boys began to waltz around the room. Everyone was laughing and joking and boy was it fun to be young; to be carefree for just a moment, without the worries of N.E.W.T.S. or what their futures where going to be like, or relationships nothing. Just pure and sensuous fun that made the seventh year Gryffindor's lives better.

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The next morning was a Saturday, and for most of the castle it meant sleeping in on their first Saturday back at Hogwarts. However for James it meant that he would be getting up to hold quidditch tryouts. James had decided over the summer that although last year's team worked well that everyone who was on the team and had not graduated would have to tryout again. He knew that most of the team would be back on but this would be a great way to see how people worked together.

So James jumped out of bed and basically floated over to the bathroom, because not only was quidditch season starting but this would be the first chance James had to ride his broom in over two weeks.

Soon James was sprinting down to the Great Hall to get a quick breakfast before heading over to the pitch. James sat down and began to dig into his oatmeal and fruit.

"James!" James looked over to see that Leah was walking towards him broom in hand, wearing workout clothes, and he was confused.

Leah liked flying, that part was true. However, Leah had never tried out for quidditch and had even told him last year that it was too violent and scary to play.

"Leah," James gulped down his food quickly. "You tryin' out for the team?"

"Yes," She smiled at him and sat down on the opposite side of the table. James just stared at her in shock as she began to munch on her eggs and bacon. Only to look up and see James staring at her.

"James?" She looked at him quizzically. "Why are you staring at me."

"Oh," James stopped mid thought. "Well, I'm just surprised that your tryin' out I mean last year you told me that it was a dangerous violent sport that I quote, 'is just a stupid game that shouldn't be played.' end quote."

"Well in all fairness that was right after your big fall last year." James's hand instinctively went to his head. Last year James scared the living daylights out of everyone when he took a nasty fall of his broom when stupid Lucius Malfoy hit a bludger at the back of his head knocking him unconscious. James wondered how he had even gotten control of the beaters bat, he was a keeper. And to top it all off he hadn't even gotten in trouble for it.

"Fine, fine," James put his hands up in concession. "But, if I may ask, what position are you trying for?"

"That's for me to know," Leah stood up from the table and leaned forward slightly, a smile dancing on her pink lips. "And for you to find out."

And James was speechless, who knew that Leah could have that effect on him? He watched as she left the hall her arms swung around her broom, her hair in a messy bun. Then Just as soon as it had left his brain he realized that he was supposed to be overseeing quidditch tryouts.

James jumped up, summoned his broom and started running towards the quidditch pitch. It probably took him ten minutes to make it to the stadium and through the locker rooms. And then he ran out onto the green grass of the field. James looked around and quickly realized that lots of people where there to try out. James saw Leah amongst those in the crowd.

"Oi, you lot," James got their attention. "First I want to say thank you all for coming out for tryouts."

James looked at them all, and they stared back at him, almost urging him to continue.

"No first I want to say a few things before we get into this." James clapped his hands together. "First, for those of you who were on the team last year. Remember that you are not automatically on the team, I want to have everyone tryout."

"Jaaaaammmmes." His little brother whined.

"No Jaaaaammmes-ing me, or I might not put you on the team this year Ally boy." James smirked, and he saw his brother look at him shocked but then regain his composure.

"Second, If you are not in Gryffindor, I don't know what the hell you are doing trying out for our team." James looked around and no one moved. "So if you aren't in Gryffindor, get out."

James watched as a few girls from Hufflepuff grumble and walk away. James then looked up into the stands to see that it was starting to fill up with spectators who had come out to see the tryouts.

"And last but not least have fun." James smiled. "Alright gents, I want all of you to get into groups for the position you are trying out for; Seekers over here, Keepers over by the goal posts. Chasers there, and Beaters over there."

And with that the group moved going to their designated areas. James noticed that Leah went with the seakers. So that was the position she was going for, interesting…

"Okay, let's start with Chasers."

James set up the drills and worked with the players two at a time, seeing as he would be working closely with the new chasers for games. And over all the cut of the crop this year had sucked, by the end of the Chaser tryouts, three people had cried and two people had fallen off their brooms. Mainly that was the first years.

But in the end he had come up with two first string players; Jake Summerbee and Hannah Sheppard; both of them where first timers that had completely blown him away with how well they had played. And also three second strings, Karl Lundstrom, Thor Porskoff, and Chealsea Beadsley. All of whom had wonderful tryouts and definitely had promise. Those who weren't chosen wore looks of disappointment as they were asked to leave the quidditch pitch.

"Beaters you're up," James yelled and motioned to the waiting group. "Chasers, we are going to be moving targets so be prepared." They all nodded in understanding.

One by one the beaters went, and it was awful they couldn't hit a target standing still for their lives if they had wanted to. That is however until the two beaters from last year took their turns; Nate and Jaz. And they where undefeatable. The two worked better together than Elliott and Demetrius, who where now currently sitting in the stands wooting and cheering for those players that they liked and rudely booing the ones they hated. He then decided to have Abby Summerbee, Jake's older sister, and Lucy Weasley as the reserves.

"Those who have not been selected need to leave the pitch seeing as there are more tryouts to take place." This had now been the third time he had to tell the crestfallen beaters that they had to leave the pitch. Most of them were unhappy, seeing as they were older students and felt more entitled to play than the first or second years.

"Now Keepers," He addressed the third group of the day. "Line up over by the goal posts. One half of you lot on one side of the field; one half on the other. Two will go at a time and will try to block five goals I will determine from your tryouts who has gotten the first string spot and who has gotten the reserve spot."

James looked at them waiting for some form of understanding. But they just stood there.

"Am I clear." James raised an eyebrow at the worried players.

James received a few 'yes sir's' and a lot of nods that he had been completely understood.

"Now take to the field you lot."

These tryout where probably the easiest of them all. James watched each one and he had to admit that none of them where all that good. Well, except for Al but Al had always been good at keeping. So in the end he had to give Al the first string position and he gave the reserve spot to his cousin Lucy, he knew that she was fine at quidditch and that she had some potential. But choosing her also meant that he could train with her on breaks if needed.

Now all he had left was the seeker tryouts. Now this was, well, in James's opinion, the most important spot of them all. So tryouts for this spot was probably the most stressful. James watched as time and time again the people trying out had caught the snitch in a 'record time' of ten minutes or more. God it was torture, he had only released it and they could not find it. Most of the time a decent seeker can find the snitch in less then five minutes. These tosspots couldn't even find it in ten. Soon however, it was Leah's turn.

James released the snitch and it flew into the air. He watched as it seemed to disappear. Then turned to look at Leah who was still standing on the ground looking up into the air. She stayed like that for what felt like a minute. Then all of the sudden she got onto her broom and flew up. She had spotted it. Wow. That was fast. Even for a tryout. He saw as she went high into the air and with a gracefulness she caught the snitch and did a loop-d-loop in the air. She then seemed to float down to the ground again. She walked up to James and dropped the snitch in his hand. And thankfully because she was the last person left James knew his decision instantly. He extended his hand to her and said…

"Welcome to the team Jones." He smiled.

"Wait," Leah looked at him in disbelief the reality slowly starting to make sense. "I'm on the team?"

"Yeah."

"THANK YOU! THANK YOU!" She was now jumping up and down for joy, then she opened her arms and gave James a big hug. And he returned it. "Thanks."

And when she left his arms James swore that it felt like she had taken away something that had been meant to be there.

"Now for the rest of you, the reserve is Lily Potter." James saw his sister smile. She was a fourth year and she was happy that she had at least gotten on the team. "And sorry for those who did not make it, but better luck next year. Those on the team stay so I can give you the training schedule.

So now James had his team and everything seamed right in the world. But little did they know that trouble was starting…

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**Mugglewriter14**


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